2018-19 NCAA Football Semi-finals

(3) Notre Dame - (2) Clemson (-10.5) (55.5)
The playoff fuss this year was about Georgia getting bounced just for losing to Alabama in the SEC final, with the argument being something like: 'Georgia is really good and played Alabama as well as anyone has played them in years and we all know Notre Dame isn't that good'. I can dig that argument, in my final poll I had Notre Dame 5th behind Georgia and Oklahoma. But, Notre Dame beat every team they played this year, going undefeated has to be worth something, right? The haters say that their schedule wasn't that good....well, wait a second...their schedule was way tougher than Clemson's! Clemson hasn't played a good team all year! Notre Dame beat Michigan, Northwestern, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Syracuse and the traditional powerhouses (though they both kinda sucked this year) Florida State and Southern Cal; Clemson's best W's are no better than Notre Dame's (does a scuffling save at Texas A&M get you all worked up?), so if we're so set on Georgia, why wasn't there an argument to dump Clemson? Because we've seen Clemson beat Alabama before and we've seen Notre Dame lose to Alabama before, but those are specious arguments, they have nothing to do with what will be on the fields today. After all that, I gotta say I'm as guilty as everyone else: I think Clemson has better talent and better coaching and I just assume that what they can put on the field will be superior to Notre Dame. But I could be--we all could be--totally wrong about that. I'd love to see Notre Dame have a nice run here in the playoff, but no one believes that will happen and neither do I. I'll say Clemson 31-21 (Notre Dame and the under).


(4) Oklahoma - (1) Alabama (-14) (79.5)
Oklahoma has their usual unstoppable offense but this year's defense was not up to snuff; they're top 4 in record only, realistically this team does not look to present much challenge to Alabama. The question with Alabama all year long is roughly: are they really that much better than everyone else or will they fold if they actually face some real competition? Georgia put a bit of a scare into them at the SEC final but Bama coolly made the necessary corrections and got it done. I think Oklahoma's offense is even better than Georgia's and will score points on Alabama for a while. But OU's defense isn't going to stop Alabama, so it's only a matter of time before the Tide seizes control and puts the game away, though I can see this game still being fun into the 4th quarter. I'll say Alabama 44-31 (Oklahoma and the under).

(So I went with the dog and the under in both games, even though I expect the favorites to win rather easily...? Hmmm...we'll see how that goes)